


Harm nor Foul

by DianaMorticai



Category: Assassination Classroom
Genre: A bit overdramatic ig, Angst, Homophobia, Homophobic Slurs, Karma's Parents are Assholes, M/M, Oops, Some Fluff, THIS WILL BE CONTINUED DW, family arguments
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-20
Updated: 2018-04-20
Packaged: 2019-04-25 11:00:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14377260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DianaMorticai/pseuds/DianaMorticai
Summary: "Prompt: Karma's family coming home from one of their business trips and giving him a breath of the family life he never had, only to then shatter his dreams by revealing the only reason they came home was to disapprove of his relationship with Nagisa (which they had found out by looking at his texts on his phone, breaching his privacy)" - @rivervibritannia on Tumblr





	Harm nor Foul

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! This is the result of a request answer being too long for Tumblr. :,) This prompt came from @rivervibritannia on Tumblr. I had to make this work. 
> 
> **Disclaimer, this isn't exactly what I think would happen if Karma's parents found out he was gay, but it made for a good prompt.

My phone deleted this but I managed to recover it :,) This took me a week oof 

 

\---

 

They were supposed to be coming home today. 

Theoretically. Karma's parents rarely came home when they said they would. He supposed that, in a sense, he couldn't really blame them. They loved to travel - business trips were no exception. Exploring new places and visiting exotic regions was a pastime that was invaluable to them. And Karma, whenever he got the chance to travel (which was rare), felt the same thrill. 

This was different, though. Because his parents had decided to come home early. Karma wasn't aware that you could decide to DO that on a business trip. Normally when his parents were traveling, he'd come home to yet another voice message on the house phone, one right after another. 

_"Karma, we'll be staying in Cape Town for another two days."_

_"Hey, squirt. We're calling to let you know that we'll be staying 'till the end of the week. Last minute change."_

_"Your father and I will be staying in L.A. for another week - sorry, hun. Is there anything you want while we're here?"_

_We'll be home in about two days - we've decided to delay again. I know it's been frequently changing, but we'll be home soon. Getting all your homework done?"_

Karma stood, embarrassingly, by the house phone. He stared at it. Would another message come? Telling him that they wouldn't be home soon? No voicemail had come today bearing that message. 

Not yet, it hadn't. 

His cellphone started ringing in his pocket, and it startled him a little. Christ, was it his dad? 

No, it wasn't. It was Nagisa - Karma blinked, then answered the phone. "Yo, Nagisa." 

He heard Nagisa's light chuckle on the other end. _"Hey. Your parents come home yet?"_

"I- no, not yet. I don't think they'll be home for a couple of hours. Why?" Karma walked over to the kitchen, suddenly thirsty. 

_"Oh - nothing really. I just knew you were anxious about it, is all."_

Karma paused in his footsteps, rocking back and fourth on his heels. "Did I mention it?" He inquired, trying to keep his tone indifferent. 

There was a small pause on, then, _"W-well, no, not really."_

"Go figure, then." Karma chuckled, and he could've sworn he heard a faint sigh on the other end. The redhead walked over to the fridge and grabbed a juice box. "Always incredibly perceptive, Nagisa."

Nagisa laughed again. It was a bit muted, timid. _"Oh, no, hardly...I guess I just over thought it."_

"Maybe, but you were still right." Karma fiddled with the plastic straw, spinning it between his thumb and index finger. He felt as if he should have expected his boyfriend to be so perceptive, but it was still so hard to get used to. Even though they'd been dating for a while now, Karma wasn't used to someone being able to read him so easily. Not sharing his emotions with anyone else for years of his life had built up a shell, and Nagisa, in his own sly and terrifying way, had cracked it. "They've been gone for five months. Of course I'm anxious about it. Especially since they decided to come home early..." He paused. "They never do that. I am anxious."

_"Ah, so the great Akabane Karma admits a weakness."_

Karma paused for only half a second. "Yeah, to _you._ My boyfriend." 

Although Karma couldn't see Nagisa, he knew he was blushing. Nagisa still hadn't gotten used to being referred to as Karma's _boyfriend_ , even though they'd been together for several months. Karma found it cute. 

_"...I like being that, you know. Your boyfriend."_

Dammit. Karma felt his cheeks heat. "Yeah." He stabbed into his juice box with his straw. 

_"I love you."_

Karma squeezed his eyes shut, briefly. "You're making me blush." 

Nagisa gave an excited gasp. Karma rolled his eyes. "Don't get cocky, Nagisa. I-" He sighed, but smiled a little. "I love you too." 

Nagisa laughed again. It was a laugh that Karma would never get tired of. _"Mhm. See you at school tomorrow, Karma."_

 

\---

 

Karma's parents arrived sooner than he'd thought - at 7:34 PM, the front door unlocked and his parents stepped into the empty foyer. His mom was carrying many more bags and parcels and packages than his father was. They wadded into the living room, and Karma walked down the stairs, tenitavely. He wore an old button-up that his mother had bought him, months ago. When he stepped into the living room to greet his parents, they turned and blinked. 

"Hey." Karma said coolly, throwing out a small grin. He was happy to see them again. 

His mother seemed to take a second to fully register his presence, but when she did, she smiled and gently put down her bags. "Hey, hun. We missed you." She said, walking over to her son. She reached out and wrapped her arms around him and Karma's first instinct, admittedly, was to stiffen - he didn't get hugged very often, other than Nagisa, who despite his small stature always tried to hug him with his entire body (an effort that Karma found cute, albeit futile). But his parents were home, and at the moment that was all that mattered to him at the moment. He returned he hug after a second, easily able to wrap his arms around his mother's neck, as she was a couple inches shorter than he was. 

His dad, from behind his mother, grinned at him. "Hiya." Karma greeted, and his father nodded, walking over to join the family hug. Karma, to his shock, suddenly felt very small. His arms loosened on his mother's neck, and after hesitating for a moment, Karma let his arms slide down to his sides, allowing himself to just be held. It was a weird feeling, one that he wasn't used to. He felt vulnerable - but, he realized, there was an overwhelming sense of _relief_ that was shadowing that vulnerability. They hadn't called this time - not once, saying that they would delay. For the first time in years, his parents had come home when they said they would, and that, apparently, was enough for Karma to feel like this. 

His mother reached her slender fingers under his chin, encouraging him to look up at her. She was smiling. She kissed him on his forehead, and Karma smiled. "Tell me about your trip." He said. 

At that, his mother frowned slightly, and she retracted her hand. Karma didn't react at the sudden change, knowing it was best to see where this led. 

His father, also frowning, completely stepped away from them and walked away, back over to the suitcases. His mother stepped back a bit too. She looked troubled. Karma furrowed his eyebrows. _Did something happen on their business trip?_

Silence, then, "We came home for a specific reason, Karma." 

Karma looked at his dad, bewildered. "And that reason is...?" Karma's voice trailed off. His mother looked extremely uncomfortable. Karma didn't know why their expressions had so suddenly changed. "You look like you've seen a ghost, mom." 

His mother sighed. "I didn't want to come home, actually, but your father insisted." She looked at the ground. 

His father walked over to a nearby sofa and flopped onto it. "We're good with our bosses. They cut us some slack, and let us come home." He seemed to hesitate. "...We told them we had a family emergency." 

Immediately, Karma voiced his confusion. "I - what-" Karma shook his head. They'd never done this before. "Did you need an excuse? Did something happen?" 

"Yes, but not there. Here." His mother grabbed her phone. 

"...Did we have a family emergency that I wasn't aware of?" Karma raised an eyebrow. He ran through a list of family members in his head, wondering who it could have been. His grandparents weren't sick, his cousins were fine, his uncle was fine, his Drunk Uncle (tm) may or may not have been fine, depending. Karma eyed his mother, who was still looking anxiously through her phone. This was assuming there actually _was_ a family emergency. Did they lie to their boss? To get out of their business trip? Why? 

Karma's father spoke first. "We - your mother and I - got an app over the weekend. It lets us see the texts on your phone." 

Karma felt his entire body freeze, suddenly. His immediate thought was _Nagisa -_ though the two of them weren't particularly lovey-dovey over text, it wasn't difficult to tell that they were a _couple_. Nagisa was always a little too endearing, and Karma always teased him a little too much. Their friendly jibes always got a little too personal, as if they were sharing precious secrets. Plus, Karma, now that he was consciously thinking about it, _definitely_ called Nagisa cute sometimes. Maybe one too many times. 

Karma looked up at his father, who was looking him dead in the eye. True, he hadn't told his parents about his relationship. Nagisa had good reason not to tell his own mother - he'd absolutely refused, understandably. Karma had decided it would just be easier to keep his own parents in the dark as well - they were never around anyway, so why bother? Karma firmly decided not to think about it, and just play along. He chose to divert the subject slightly. "What brought about the sudden need to download it?"

His mother, still not looking up from her phone, waved her hand dismissively. "One of our work friends brought it up while we were on our trip - apparently, because of it, they'd caught their kid having phone sex with a boy they didn't approve of." She said it as if it were the most casual sentence in the world. Karma felt his face redden, and he willed himself to keep his composure. He and Nagisa had never done _that._

Hearing his mother say the word "sex" so casually had caught Karma off guard, but what is father said nearly made him jump out of his skin: "So, we decided to download it to look at your phone, to see if you were watching porn, or anything like that." 

Karma didn't say _anything,_ opting to keep his lips sealed. 

His mother, as if she'd found her nerve, looked up at him. "Karma, are you still talking to Shiota Nagisa?" 

" - Sorry?" 

"You heard me." Her tone was so _stern._

Karma didn't respond immediately. He didn't want to. Why was this bad? Clearly this was bad. "Well, yeah." 

"As more than a friend?" His father asked swiftly. He spoke fast, and firm, nailing Karma with his gaze.

Karma met his eyes. A feeling of dread bloomed in his stomach, but he tried to ignore it. "What're you two getting at?" 

His mother looked back down at her phone, apparently with a purpose this time. "Well, we opened the app, Karma." She said, her voice sour. "We found your texts -" She held up the phone for him to see, and just as Karma had figured, there was an exact copy of his text stream with Nagisa there, displayed on the screen. 

Karma didn't want to talk about this. Not here, not now. "What does this have to do with the two of you coming home?" He asked. His voice was a bit weak, and he knew that it was all starting to circle around. 

" _This._ " His mother hissed, her tone suddenly increased tenfold in disgust, and Karma almost flinched. "Is this the same Shiota Nagisa that your father and I thought was a girl?" 

"You know, the one you hung out with during your first year." His father turned his head towards his wife. "He came over once or twice, didn't he?"

His mother was looking down at her phone again, no doubt reading through Karma's messages. She nodded. "Yes...I never liked his feminine appearance. I found it a bit creepy." 

Karma felt a small touch of vertigo. "I- w-well, yes. Same guy." He said quietly. Hell, there was no way they _wouldn't_ know it was the same Shiota Nagisa. There were enough pictures in that text stream. 

Although Karma still, to this day, made fun of Nagisa's femininity just a little, he found himself angered by his parent's words. Karma tried not to judge people by their appearance, as a general rule. He hadn't judged Nagisa at all when they'd first started hanging out, back in their first year of junior high. But considering Nagisa's home life, Karma had tried to dial down any sort of jibeing. He also felt a small, instictual urge suddenly to _protect_ Nagisa. Karma was is boyfriend. That was his job. Karma loved Nagisa - something that had taken a bit too long for him to realize, and when he had, it felt like he'd centered himself. He still felt that way. 

Karma felt a growing sense of dread. There was a thought forming in the back of his mind, but he shoved it down before it could make an appearance. "Mom, what does this have to do with your trip?" 

"You already know." She said. He hadn't noticed that her gaze had turned deadly until just now. "You're dating him, aren't you?" 

Karma raised his eyebrow, keeping up the nonchalant act. "What if I am?" He asked, doing his best to lace his tone with indifferent curiosity. He ignored the sweat that dripped down the back of neck. He couldn't tear his eyes away from his mother's gaze - she had changed so quickly, what...why? 

Her eyes narrowed, but didn't lessen in their intensity. "How _dare_ you." She seethed, her volume raising. Karma felt his own eyes widen at her tone. "Karma - I don't - since when we're you even _gay?"_

 _That_ was the problem? "I have been for a while, I just never thought to mention it." 

His mother looked absolutely floored. " _WHY?_ " 

"Wh- because why would I?" Karma inquired, flabbergasted. "You - you're never _here -_ " His tone held more spite than he'd intended, and Karma bit his tongue. Fucking hell. 

"That doesn't mean we aren't a part of your life!" His father suddenly snapped, standing up from the couch and glaring at him. He pointed an accusing finger at his son. "All we've ever done is provide for you - and you get yourself a boyfriend!" 

"You didn't even ask us! And it had to be _him,_ " His mother spat. "That boy has never done a single good thing for you." 

Karma felt numb. " _Excuse me?_ " 

"You heard me. We always told you that boy was just hanging off of you - sucking away your time like a goddamn leach." 

Karma took a step forward as he felt fire light up every inch of his body. "He isn't a leach. How dare you." 

Getting this angry was odd - Karma was normally a laid-back person. He wasn't the type to yell or argue. If something didn't go his way, he ignored it entirely. That had been his mentality as a child, but Class E - Koro Sensei, his classmates, Karasuma, they'd all taught him differently. They taught him to learn from his failures and face his disagreements head-on. _Nagisa taught you that, too._

"How dare _we?_ How dare _you!_ " His father growled. "I personally don't give a rats ass if he's your precious darling. He isn't good for you. You need to dump him." 

Karma froze. 

"Dump that good-for-nothing twit." His mother said, sternly. "I can't even believe you're gay." 

"Since when would you have had a problem with your son being gay?" Karma said. His voice was loud. "Don't tell me you came home to tell me that." 

His mother was about to speak, but Karma cut her off. He was in no way feeling jovial, but Karma still let out a taunting grin. "I mean, how stupid is that? Can't stand who your son is dating, so you ditch work so that you can tell him that. How dumb can you get?" 

His father's eyes widened, obvious rage on his face. But Karma didn't stop - he couldn't. "Oh - all this, because you can't admit that you're never around when you should be." Karma hadn't realized he'd walked closer to them. There was a whirl of emotions in his chest, none of which he could identify, but he chose not to waste his effort trying. His eyes never left those of his fathers - gold meeting gold. In a way, he felt similar to how Nagisa must have felt when he was fighting Takaoka. Karma's gaze hardened.

His father actually took several, swift steps forward, so that he was inches away from his son's face. Karma probably wouldn't have been scared if it had been any other adult, but this was his father. Karma felt his face relax on instinct, not willing to stand up to him. Instead, he quietly said, "I don't know why you guys are so angry about this." 

"Since when was our son a fag?" 

Karma didn't know what he had expected to come out of his father's mouth, but it certainly hadn't been _that._ Karma felt his face turn bright red in anger and embarrassment, and his eyes went wide as saucers as he yanked himself back a few feet. "What- you-" 

His father barely moved. "You're a faggot, Karma. Plain and simple. You know that. Don't think of it as an insult if it's true. And you know that Shiota is draining you." 

His mother, adding insult to injury, read a text. "'I don't think I'm _that_ cute, Karma.' 'Well, you are to me. That's all that matters, Nagisa.'" She let out a disgusted grunt. "This kid can't even stand up for himself, Karma." 

"He - he's not _weak_!" Karma spluttered. Was this really happening? The last he checked, his parents were accepting people who would have never cared. If they only _knew._ God, if only they knew what Nagisa was. If only they knew how weak Karma was, truly, compared to Nagisa. Nagisa, who had to force himself to accept his feminine appearance, Nagisa, who tensed and cried and shook with dread every time his mother snapped at him at home. Nagisa, who was probably one of the kindest, most honest people Karma had ever known. The most _terrifying_ person Karma had ever known. 

His mind couldn't process that, though. Not now. He wanted to be angry, he wanted to kick and yell, but he just stood there, frozen. 

How quickly had their family moment diminished to this? 

Karma stood still. His mother read another text: "'Have you been having nightmares again, Nagisa?' 'Only some, Karma. Don't worry about it...' 'You can come spend the night at my place, if you want.'" His mother clicked her tongue. "So he's weak, and he has nightmares. Great." She looked overwhelmingly exasperated. "You let him into our house?" 

"I offered." Karma said shortly. His voice was flat. 

"This isn't your house! It's ours!" 

"You're never here!" Karma's patience was running low. It felt like his parents were running in circles. "So you're telling me to dump him." 

"Frankly," His mother turned off her phone and shoved it in her pocket. "Yes. That's exactly what we're doing." 

And before Karma could give even a shred of acknowledgement to _that,_ his father chimed in wrapping it all together with an icy ribbon. "We work with a lot of conservative people, Karma. If it gets out that our kid is gay..."

"W-what, you'll lose your job?" 

"No." His mother said, waving her hand. "No, they wouldn't fire us for something like that - but our reputation in the workplace would be absolutely destroyed." She looked at him sternly. "You need to consider our needs too, Karma." 

Karma didn't notice he had teared up until he spoke. "You came home from a business trip just to tell me I'm a faggot and that you don't approve of my relationship. That I should dump the love of my life-" Somehow, saying it out loud felt worse, and he stopped himself short, aware of what he'd just admitted to his parents. Oh, god, how would Nagisa feel if he had heard this conversation? Karma swallowed hard, in an attempt to control his tears. It didn't work as well as he would've liked - he did his best to ignore the small tear running down his cheek. 

"Your WHAT-" His mother bared her teeth. 

"The love of your life, huh?" His father's voice was loud. Karma couldn't move. "Oh, yeah, play the goddamn pity card. You know what, Karma? Screw you. Screw you and your girlfriend." 

"H-he's not-" 

"This is sick. I'm out." His father stormed out of the room. He shoved past Karma on his way out, causing his son to stumble. 

That left him with his mother, who walked up and stood several inches away from him. Her eyes were green, much unlike Karma's, but they were just as burning. She stood there, her face centimeters from his. No sympathy. 

Then, in a sudden moment of sureness, she walked out of the room, after her husband, leaving the echoes of an argument and a slightly broken fifteen-year-old son in her wake. 

Karma knew his parents were talking to each other a couple rooms away, but he couldn't hear them. He couldn't hear anything. The only thing that was running through his brain was _if I break up with him my family will love me if I break up with him I'll die if I break up with him my family will love me if I break up with him I'll die NAGISA will die NagisaNagisaNagisaNagisaMOM-_

Karma didn't register his own movement as his feet carried him out of the living room. Not thinking to grab his phone, or shoes, he walked out the front door and into the night. 

_Get away._

His adrenaline carried him as far as he could go. He didn't run, feeling as if he would break if he tried. Instead, he walked, fast, through the streets of the town. Somehow, he didn't register the pain in his feet, only wrapped in thin, once-white socks. He didn't register the faint chill of the early-October wind, and his natural instinct of _you're walking alone at nighttime, why the fuck are you doing that_ had been thrown out the window. He let out quick breathes as he walked, somewhere, anywhere. 

His feet ended up taking him in the direction of Nagisa's apartment complex, but he wasn't stupid enough to go there, so he willed himself away and walked elsewhere. Currently, the idea of telling Nagisa what happened with his parents made Karma want to vomit. But he didn't want to think. At all. 

When his mind cleared up and his tears stopped silently falling, he looked up, instantly recognizing the outline of the middle school. If he'd been in a better state, he might have rolled his eyes. Out of all the places he could've ran to, why did it have to be here? 

A memory flashed through his mind, with a suddenness he didn't appreciate: his mother's arms, hugging him, holding him. She had been warm, as she always was, but there was also a faint smell of perfume. His mother loved to wear exotic perfumes, but today, she hadn't been - no, today, when Karma hugged her, he smelled her signature rose perfume. She'd bought that here, in Japan, and it was _her_ perfume. It was _her_ scent. The scent of _mom_. Karma's mother was the sentimental type, which must have meant...

 _She was thinking about coming home today._

Yes. She must have been. Normally, his parents loved to brag about wherever they'd just been. His mom, whenever she returned home from her travels, wore a perfume from wherever she'd traveled to, just to leave a subtle reminder of, _hey, by the way, I went to a really expensive exotic place_ in the air. But today, she wore Japanese perfume. She was thinking about coming home. She missed Japan. She missed _home._

That realization made Karma choke on the air he was breathing, and he couldn't deal with it. Without thinking, he ran. Nowhere in particular, just _forward_. He ran for about twenty minutes straight before his lungs completely gave out and his knees buckled, making him fall to the ground. He grit his teeth, burying his fists into the grass. His eyes were squeezed shut, harsh breathes escaping him, burning him like fire. 

"Nagi-" He gasped. The name sounded wrong on his tongue, for some reason. He let out a small whimper as he fell down to the ground, giving up his strength for now. He lay sprawled out on the grass, with no real coat or shoes. _Or phone._

The wind picked up, and he found the energy to shiver, curling in on himself. He felt pathetic, but his eyes were squeezed shut, and he couldn't see where he'd ended up. (Although, somehow he subconsciously knew that he had run about three-quarters of the way up the mountain, near the Class E building. 

_You'll get hypothermia if you stay here like this._

_Had they been right?_

_Get up._

_Am I harming my family by being gay?_

_It doesn't matter. Get up._

_I love Nagisa._

_Get UP._

_I LOVE him._

_Get UP, you idiot!_

_I can't leave him. He isn't a girl. He's my boyfriend-_

_Wow, it's...really cold._

Karma opened his eyes, slowly. Half of his body felt a bit numb. He had to get home before he froze to death - he had to.

He picked himself up and walked home, but his mind was hazy. He wasn't really _thinking,_ but every gear in his mind was spinning at top speed. It took him over forty-five minutes to walk back home, at his sluggish pace. He didn't register the cold anymore. By the time he had arrived home, he saw from outside that the lights were off in the living room, and his parents room as well. They were already in bed - they hadn't waited for Karma. 

Karma unlocked his front door with shaky hands and let himself back inside, immediately surrounded my warmth. He was tempted to slide to the floor and just pass out there, but he didn't. Instead, he blindly walked up the stairs and into his room. Not bothering to take his clothes off, he fell onto his bed. His face felt incredibly stiff and puffy - likely a result from crying and being outside. 

He fell asleep without another thought.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading. Let me know in the comments if I should continue this story or not! You can find me on Tumblr at @assclass-stories :3 
> 
> EDIT: I WILL be continuing this story! Thank you all so much for your comments - a second chapter will be out once I finish the next chapter of Royal Colors, then I have some other prompts I need to address. After that, I will be writing a second chapter of Harm Nor Foul. Ideas are already in the works. ;) Thanks so much for reading!


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